Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana, has said Nigeria cannot effectively lead regional efforts to curb military coups in West Africa without first tackling poverty, insecurity and shrinking civic freedoms at home.
Falana stated this on Tuesday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today as the region confronts another round of military takeovers.
“If we want to have political stability in Nigeria, you must address the crisis of the economy, address poverty, tackle illiteracy and curb insecurity of lives and property,” he said.
The human rights lawyer warned against the criminalisation of dissent, stressing that democracy cannot thrive where criticism is treated as an offence.
“There must be freedom of expression. You cannot be charging people with all manner of offences for expressing their views about the affairs of their country,” he said.
He also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to widen political participation by registering more ideological political parties.
According to him, many citizens are unhappy with current policies while opposition parties across Africa are being weakened through direct and indirect restrictions.
“If you want to stop coups, you must allow political pluralism in Nigeria. You cannot be moving towards a one party state and expect to export democracy,” he said.
Falana added that credible elections depend on a strong and competitive opposition.
His comments followed Sunday’s failed coup attempt in Benin Republic where soldiers led by Lt Col Pascal Tigri seized the state television station in Cotonou and announced the removal of President Patrice Talon.
The uprising was crushed within hours by Nigerian troops and the ECOWAS standby force. Several persons were reported killed while at least 14 suspects were arrested.
The African Union, United Nations, European Union and ECOWAS condemned the coup as the Senate approved President Bola Tinubu’s request to deploy troops to Benin Republic.
